For more than a decade he’s dreamed and built towards this moment, a tireless advocate for African basketball, a son of the continent determined to give the youth more opportunities, more facilities, a greater connection with the NBA.
Now that the league will host its first game there — an all-star exhibition Saturday in Johannesburg — Masai Ujiri swells with pride.
“It’s remarkable,” the Raptors general manager said on a conference call Thursday.
“It’s incredible to see all these guys here,” he added seconds later.
“It’s crazy that this game is actually happening,” was how he summed it up.
And it might just be the first step for Ujiri and the Raptors.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver said Saturday’s exhibition game — it’s Team World vs. Team Africa with Ujiri acting as general manager of the hosts that include Raptors centre and Congo native Bismack Biyombo — is just the precursor towards a pre-season or regular season game in Africa. It might be two years away and the need for a larger stadium is acute but when that happens, expect Toronto to be involved.
“We’ve definitely had discussions but they are elementary in some ways,” said Ujiri, the native of Nigeria who has been working with the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders program in Africa since 2003.
“Larry (Tanenbaum, the team’s minority owner and league governor) is very, very interested if this comes about; we would definitely be a team that would be very, very interested.
But first is Saturday’s exhibition at the 4,000-seat Johannesburg arena at the same complex where, symbolically, the iconic Nelson Mandela donned a South African rugby jersey in one of the most poignant sports moments of his incredible life.
There are 20 NBAers taking part in the game — Chris Paul, Pau and Marc Gasol, Luol Deng among them — and a legion of legends helping the cause.
Hakeem Olajuwon and Dikembe Mutombo, Gregg Popovich and Lionel Hollins are among the others who’ve taken part in two days of camps and appearances heading into Saturday’s game.
That African youths can see NBA players live is a giant step; Biyombo remembers growing up watching highlights on TV and reading about the game, the last thing he’d have the chance to do would be see players in person.
“The feeling is quite special and obviously they will be motivated from this,” said Biyombo, who has organized camps for about 2,000 kids in Congo this summer. “To be able to play in the first game in Africa is something special.”
But the work will not end with Saturday’s game. The infrastructure on the continent is not near where it needs to be, there have to be more courts, more chances for kids to play. More chances for youths to get started early so they grow up with the game rather than coming to it when they are far behind other international programs.
“There is talent there,” Ujiri said. “It’s how this motivates them and the opportunities it creates for them.
“We have to create those opportunities to build courts, create more competitions for the kids.”
